An Angry Boy with a Broken Heart
by smaragdbird
Summary: Four months after Alcatraz Pyro finds Magneto and asks him to come back to the mansion to continue Xavier's work.  John/Bobby slash, Magneto POV


When Magneto had first met Pyro he had been an angry boy with a broken heart who had run head first into anything he was passionate about. Magneto had taken him in, taught him and loved him like a son.

He wondered if the boy was still alive. Four months and no one had breathed a word neither about Pyro nor about John Allerdyce.

Magneto stretched his hand out and the chess piece moved to the next field. He came here every day to practice. His power came slowly back but it was still only a fraction of what it used to be.

'So it's not permanent with you either.' Magneto lowered his hand and turned around. Pyro stood a few feet away. He looked different with his shorn hair and the angry, red scar on the left side of his forehead. His hands were deeply buried in the pockets of his black cargos.

'You don't sound surprised.' Magneto replied as if they continued a previous conversation and not as if he had spent the last months wondering if Pyro was alive.

'I've seen some of the ugliest after-effects.' Pyro shrugged: 'That Worthington was a sick fuck.' From the news Magneto had heard that Worthington had died in the battle but not how. Pyro gestured with his elbow to the other side of the chess table:

'Can I?'

'Certainly.'

Pyro nudged the chair away from the table with his foot and sat down:

'It wasn't easy t find you.'

'I'm living a quiet life.'

'Yeah, me, too,' Pyro grinned: 'Although I don't have a choice if I ever want to use these again.' He pulled his hands out of his pockets and put them on the table. If Magneto hadn't lived through the worst cruelties people could inflict on each other then he might have drawn a breath.

Pyro's hands were a mess of scars that seared over and through every patch of skin. It looked like someone who had never touched a needle in his life had tried to make gloves from lots of different, tiny bits of skin.

'I would wear gloves,' John said conversationally: 'but people may confuse me with Rogue.'

'You're back at the mansion, then.'

'Yes.' Pyro suddenly looked away as if he was ashamed of something.

'They saved my life there.' He said softly: 'I woke up in a hospital bed and no one would tell me anything for weeks. I didn't know whether you or Quill or Avalanche or someone else of us had survived.' And that was the point, Magneto realised. Pyro felt guilty and ashamed for failing him.

He put his hand over Pyro's and said:

'You've done nothing wrong.'

They sat like this for a short while, then Pyro said:

'No one else made it. At least no one I know the name of. Storm killed Callisto and Angel told me that Quill, Arclight and Psylocke were on a balcony when Phoenix got them. Nobody saw Avalanche but I remember him being on the island before I lost.'

Magneto felt sympathy for Pyro. He had seen that Pyro had become quite attached to Quill as much as one could become attached to another in the course of a few days.

'The facility is destroyed, Worthington and most of his employees are dead and I trust the X-Men enough not to let the boy be used as a weapon against us again. Their deaths were not in vain.' Pyro looked grateful for his words, but then he ducked his head again.

'I think,' he said more to himself than to Magneto: 'I think I'll stay there for a while, in the mansion, I mean. Since the war is over.'

'Peace is a break between two wars.' Magneto quoted mainly to see Pyro crack a grin and added:

'But that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy it. They treat you well at the mansion I presume?'

'Better than I expected.' Pyro admitted: 'And I think short of committing murder Bobby would do anything for me to ease his guilty feeling for doing this.' He nodded towards his hands. He said something else but Magneto didn't really listen to his words. When Pyro had mentioned Bobby's name Magneto wished that he had pushed Pyro harder, had reshaped him instead of making him a stronger version of himself. Pyro was an artist, stubborn and loyal and so utterly passionate about everything, especially love and while he wasn't soft or easy he was vulnerable to those he had once let close enough. And Bobby had broken, bend and twisted Pyro's heart while Pyro had been unable to stop him.

The list of people Magneto had a personal grudge against wasn't very long but Bobby Drake's name was certainly on it.

'Have you heard anything about Mystique?' Pyro asked: 'Apparently she practically vanished after she told the government where our camp was.'

'No, I haven't.' Magneto didn't regret his decision to leave her behind in that moment. He had seen the opportunity and had known her well enough to predict what she would do in the face of his betrayal but he wished that it hadn't been necessary.

'There's another reason why I'm here.' Pyro squirmed uncomfortably: 'Storm and Dr. McCoy, they asked me to ask you to come to the mansion. There are a lot of kids that have been forcibly cured and now that their powers come back...' Pyro winced as if remembering something unpleasant: 'They think you could help them to control it.'

Magneto was genuinely surprised. He remembered both Storm and Beast from their time as students in the mansion when he had still lived there. If they asked for his help then they were in deep water.

'Tell them I'll think about their offer.'

'Thank you.' Pyro said sincerely.

'Take care of yourself.'

Being back in the mansion felt wrong without Charles' presence but Magneto could see that Storm desperately needed all the help she could get. Charles, Scott and Jean were dead, Beast gone to his new position as ambassador and Wolverine had left with Rogue. That left Storm with the couple kids Magneto had seen on Alcatraz to help her out. She was watchful but polite to him and Magneto hadn't expected anything else.

After the first few days, Magneto sat with Pyro in the infirmary while Moira Taggart examined Pyro's hands.

'The healing process looks good. How is the physiotherapy working?'

'It hurts.' Pyro admitted with a grimace: 'But hey, I can eat with a spoon already. Another four months and I'll have the fine motor skills of a surgeon.'

Magneto could see that Moira was secretly amused at Pyro's ironic humour.

'How's Angel doing?' Pyro asked suddenly serious.

'We're keeping him sedated until the re-growth is completed. Fortunately most of Worthington's research was additionally saved in his New Yorker labs but we're far from an antidote.'

'Angel?' Magneto asked later when he accompanied Pyro back to his room.

'Worthington's son, he's the reason why Worthington developed the cure. Bobby gave him that stupid nickname, of course, because of his white feathered wings. Anyway Angel tried to safe his father from Alcatraz but some soldier thought that he was one of us and shot him with the Cure. Angel was lucky, just a few broken bones, nothing that won't heal. He was my neighbour in the next bed when I woke up. Nice guy especially for someone who had just lost his wings and had to lie on the street with his father's brains and blood scattered over him until the ambulance came. It started one day, he began screaming and writhing in pain. It has something to do with the Cure.' Pyro shuddered: 'It was horrible. One moment he's fine and in the next he's screaming like someone hit him with a belt.'

They had reached John's room. It looked pretty much like any other room Magneto had seen inhabited by Pyro: clothes and books strewn all over the floor and furniture and walls decorated with scorch marks. Not that the other side of the room could exactly be called neat but the scorch marks were a tell tale sign where Pyro slept.

Magneto was about to ask who Pyro's roommate was, although he had a strong suspicion, when a cheerful

'Hi, Johnny I'm back.' Came through the hallway.

'Pyro, ice-cube, my name is Pyro.' Pyro rolled his eyes but Bobby had already seen Magneto and his cheery expression faltered. The tension rose exponentially, Pyro must have noticed, too because he excused himself immediately.

'I didn't know you were already here.' Bobby said coolly.

'I see Pyro didn't see it necessary to inform you then.' Magneto answered. He was unfazed by Bobby's unhidden hostility.

'John couldn't have reached me. I was on a mission.'

'How convenient.' Magneto remarked, which sparked Bobby's defiance:

'I've been here for the last four months. John neither needs nor wants me around 24/7.'

'You mean now that you've seen that he's faring better your guilty feeling has been laid to rest.'

'I'm not with John because I feel guilty.'

Magneto didn't even dignify that with an answer, instead he said:

'I'll see you around Mr. Drake.'

Pyro didn't spend as much time with Bobby as Magneto had feared. Bobby himself didn't have that much time to spare and Pyro sat in the infirmary for long hours, talking to the heavily sedated Angel. It was the kind of attachment that Magneto hoped would keep Pyro away from Bobby as soon as Angel was awake.

The next surprise came a week later or so. It was a sunny, mid-autumn afternoon, classes were done for the day and everyone could be found outside. Magneto enjoyed teaching more than he had both remembered and expected and it was more tiresome than leading the Brotherhood had been but he reminded himself that these children were the future of mutantkind. That and, while Mystique was probably gone for good he still had Pyro's loyalty and affection.

Pyro and Bobby sat not far from him, reading a book and correcting tests respectively.

'John! Johnny!' A young man Magneto recognised only too well, ran across the lawn. John looked up, a huge grin splitting his face and jumped to his feet.

'Nick!' No correction of the name here, Magneto thought amused as the two embraced tightly much to Bobby's apparent dismay.

'I thought you were dead!' Pyro's excitement that he wasn't was obvious.

'God, John, I thought you were dead too. I looked for you on that damn island but couldn't find you. I jumped into the water at the last second, swam through the bay. I searched for you everywhere but I have to admit I didn't think you would come back here.'

'I was knocked out and woke up here.' Pyro told Avalanche. He had been part of the Omegas but he and Pyro had known each other from before.

'What happened to your hands?' Avalanche asked distraughtly, holding both of Pyro's hands tenderly in his.

'This is what happens when you don't play nice with icemen.' Pyro laughed.

'I hope you made the bastard pay.'

'The bastard sits over there.' Pyro pointed towards Bobby but before Avalanche could do more than throw Bobby a glare that promised immense pain in the near future, Pyro grabbed his arm: 'But before you use your powers to make the ceiling collapse on him while he sleeps I have to tell you that I share the room with Bobby.'

'Bobby?' Avalanche looked surprised: 'As in your Bobby.'

'The very same.'

'You'd be better off with Remy.' Avalanche decided: 'I've heard Mags is here, too. What does he say to your profound and proven dumbness of letting Bobby back in your life?'

'I think he hates it.' Pyro said casually but threw an unsure glance in Magneto's direction. Avalanche followed his look and walked over:

'Sir.' He said in a mock-militaristic voice.

'It's nice to see you alive.'

'For me too.' Avalanche agreed: 'what do you think of John's decision to take Bobby back?'

'I think he's a grown man capable of making his own decision.'

'Come on, how about meeting Bobby before you condemn him?' Magneto leaned back. Bobby and Avalanche that should prove interesting.

Predictably Bobby and Avalanche eyed each other with unveiled suspicion and hostility as soon as they approached each other.

'Bobby this is-'

'Dominikos Ioannis Petrakis or Avalanche.' Avalanche introduced himself. He shook Bobby's hand so hard that it had probably broken a bone or two.

'You have to be Bobby Drake, then.'

'I am.' Bobby didn't look away from Avalanche's eyes: 'Funny, John never mentioned you.'

'I bet there are a lot of things Johnny's never mentioned to you.'

'Only the unimportant things.'

'One word from him, 'Avalanche threatened: 'One. Single. Word. That he's unhappy because of you and they'll be able to use your remains as ice-cubes.'

'Same for you.' Bobby shot back.

'Uhm, guys? I'm capable of fighting my own battles.' Pyro said, but was ignored by Avalanche and Bobby who were seemingly of a different opinion much like Magneto. The only kind of battle Pyro could fight about someone he loved was one of life and death.

It took exactly two weeks until Storm showed up in the doorway to his classroom after the lesson had been over.

'May I speak with you, Erik?'

'Of course, my dear, please come in.'

'One of them has to go.' She said emphatically: 'I can't cast John out on the street in his condition and I need Bobby here as a teacher.'

'You were having problems with Avalanche?' He asked rhetorically. Of course, she had. Avalanche, Bobby and John was like watching a live-soap: 'What do you think about Bobby's and Pyro's relationship?' He was interested in her opinion. After all she had been their teacher for some time.

'I think they both should get over their obsession with each other and move on to someone else. It's polarizing too with Kitty and Piotr on Bobby's side and Avalanche and you on John's. The sooner Angel wakes up the better.' So she had noticed Pyro's attachment too.'

Angel did wake up not long after that. Dr. Taggart had allowed Pyro to be there when he did and when Magneto came by a few hours later to look after him, he found Pyro sitting next to Angel's bed, holding his hands and speaking softly to him. He looked utterly, absolutely and undeniably happy.

It had, however, not the desired effect.

'Me and Bobby, we want to go to Canada.' Pyro said instead of a greeting.

Magneto's eyebrows rose in surprise. Pyro shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other:

'We've been talking about it a lot lately. Now that Angel is better. A fresh start for both of us.'

'How concrete are your plans?'

'Pretty concrete. There's a mutant school in Vancouver that needs teachers.'

'What did Storm and Avalanche say?'

'Storm's okay with it if a bit resigned. I think she had hoped that Bobby and I would have broken up by now. I haven't told Nick yet. He'd probably kill Bobby before I was finished with the sentence.'

'I love him.' Pyro said, looking determined: 'And he loves me.'

'I meant what I said to Avalanche, Pyro. I trust you to make your own decisions. If you chose Bobby to be happy then I'll respect that.'

'Thank you.' Pyro smiled happily and it was a good look on him.


End file.
